Review: LEGO 80111 Lunar New Year Parade

December 14, 2022 | 9

We’re kicking off the 2023 LEGO review season with a particularly special one, with 80111 Lunar New Year Parade!

It’s part of the 2023 LEGO Chinese New Year sets, and depending on where you are, will be released on 25 December (UK/EU/China), 1 January (Asia Pacific), or 10 January (North America)!

This set contains a whopping 18 minifigures, and depicts a festive Lunar New Year Parade, with 3 unique and wonderfully designed floats which boast some clever mechanical functions!

This set is a certified banger, and a great addition to LEGO’s Chinese Traditional Festival/Lunar New Year collection!

Check out the local pricing and release dates below:

80111 Lunar New Year Parade

• 80111 Lunar New Year Parade [US] – US$129.99 (10 January 2023)
• 80111 Lunar New Year Parade [AUS]  – AU$159.99 (1 January 2023)
• 80111 Lunar New Year Parade [UK] – £89.99 (10 January 2023)
• 80111 Lunar New Year Parade [EU] – €99.99 (10 January 2023)
• 80111 Lunar New Year Parade [CA] – CAD$169.99 (10 January 2023)

If you’re thinking of buying the set, please consider using these affiliate links to purchase, as I may receive a small commission with each purchase.

Special thanks to The LEGO Group for sending this early review set

80111 Lunar New Year Parade Set Details

Name: Lunar New Year Parade
Set Number: 80111
Pieces: 1,653
Price: $129.99 [US] | £89.99 GBP [UK] | AU$159.99 [AUS]
Minifigures: 18
Exclusive to: N/A
Theme: Chinese New Year / Chinese Traditional Festival
Release Date: 10 January 2023 (US), 1 January 2023 (AUS), 25 December (UK/EU)
Designer: Justin Ramsden (@justinramsden)

Here’s a look at the instruction manual. Unlike the box, which is beautifully decorated with plenty of colour, these have succumbed to the plain white instructions.

There are no words or descriptions within the manual, but in each manual on the first and second page, there are these lovely handdrawn illustrations which depict scenes from the Lunar New Year. I like this approach as it communicates the story in a much more universal manner.

80111 Lunar New Year Parade relies on plenty of stickers for the details, namely the Chinese sayings and puns, as well as the LEGO stud decorations. There’s also a plastic decoration sheet, with the film-like decorations used in the Music-themed float.

The stickers are quite annoying because there are just so many of them, and some are particularly tricky to apply, as they go across curved tiles.

That said, all is not lost, as there are some interesting printed elements in the set too.

80111 Lunar New Year Parade Minifigures

The set comes with a whopping 18 minifigures, which makes it the Lunar New Year set with the most minifigures, beating out 80103 Dragon Boat Race’s 15 minifigures! I love that so many minifigures were included, which greatly enhances the play value, as well as makes it feel like its worth the set’s relatively high price.

It also brings the set to life and is exactly what you’d expect from a set based on a parade.

Here’s a look at the all-girl musician troupe, who are primarily attached to the Music Float. Each musician has their very own instruments, whether they’re drumsticks, or clanging cymbals – the aim is to make as much noise as possible, which scares away bad luck and evil spirits.

They each have these highly detailed teal outfits, and some of them have alternate faces as well.

A highlight is the inclusion of this Pipa, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument which uses the Lute from Series 23’s Troubadour, but with all-new decorations.

Each year, we also get a Chinese Zodiac Costumed figure in at least one Lunar New Year set, and to usher in the Year of the Rabbit, we get this all-new Rabbit Zodiac minifigure, sporting a brand new, large rabbit headgear.

There’s also a girl carrying firecrackers, leading the parade.

Here’s a look at the Zodiac Rabbit Minifigure’s back printing, and dual-sided head, as well as the Firecracker girl.

Oh, and we also get a new Rabbit Lantern too, which is printed on a trans-red minifigure head. We typically get a new Zodiac lantern each year in the Lunar New Year sets.

The Firecracker Girls’s hairpiece is a recolour of Monkie Kid’s without the decoration and crown on the front, which is neat to see as it’s a lot more generic.

Here’s a comparison of the Chinese Zodiac Rabbit Minifigure to the LEGO Minifigures Bunny Suit Guy. It joins the Ox, Rat and Pig as a growing cycle of Zodiac-themed minifigures.

Another really interesting pair of minifigures is this male and female, with Big Head Buddha masks. They’re a really clever re-use of the Big Thanos head, and capture the Big Buddhas, who are comical, jester-like characters that typically accompany Lion Dances with large masks made out of paper mache.

They look absolutely hilarious on minifigures. The Chinese characters on the flags mean Spring and Blessing/Prosperity respectively.

Here’s a look at their back printing.

There’s also a lady and a young girl, who are watching the parade and enjoying the street food. The lady comes with a brand new Boba/Bubble Tea accessory, which has the pearls printed on a 1×1 round brick. Love that her Bubble Tea flavour of choice is Taro, which is also my favourite.

The young girl has some food on skewers, and has a new outdoorsy torso design, which we’ll see in a new 2023 City set 60387 Off Road Adventure.

Here’s a look at their back prints and dual-sided faces.

In a lovely nod to LEGO’s history and heritage, we also get a trio of minifigures manning the LEGO-themed float. They’re represent some of LEGO’s most iconic themes – Classic Space, Castle and Pirates, the big three, as they say.

They have red shirts, with 2×2 bricks printed on the front and back, making these very Lunar New Year-appropriate.

They are also carrying greetings, with the Purple Spaceman’s one loosely translated to “having a prosperous career” and the Pirate’s meaning Year of the Rabbit. The rabbits in the sentences are there for wordplay, as the Chinese word for rabbit 兔 is incorporated into these puns.

Here’s a look at their back printing, which has another 2×2 brick. The Pirate also has a hearing aid on his head!

Oh, and special thanks to designer of this set Justin Ramsden for using this opportunity to finally give us a Purple Classic Space helmet AND airtanks.

Combined with the Purple Classic Space torso from Series 22’s Space Creature, you can now create a purist and fully kitted out Purple Classic Space Astronaut. The purple helmet and airtanks are going to be very sought-after and a huge draw for Classic Space fans to pick this set up!

And last but not least, we have the Lunar New Year family, which we met from the very first LEGO Lunar New Year set, 80101 Chinese New Year’s Eve Dinner. The husband, wife, and their two kids make an appearance each year in at least one set, and it’s great to see them here.

Last year, they appeared in 80108 Lunar New Year Traditions. The mum, daughter and son have brand new torsos, and I especially like the son’s Monkie Kid jacket. He’s been a huge fan of the Monkie Kid theme, and I can’t blame him!

Here’s a look at their back prints and dual-sided heads. The dad has these cute Rabbit clip-on accessories for his glasses which is really cute.

The mum and daughter also have a Chinese pun written on the back of their matching jackets, which loosely translates to “big Mandarin, big pear”, a saying for “smooth sailing, everything goes smoothly”.

The son comes with a printed tile that represents a red envelope (aka angpau), an important Chinese New Year tradition where unmarried people especially kids receive these envelope which contain money, as a symbol and gesture of prosperity and good luck.

And in more connections to the 80101 Chinese New Year’s Eve Dinner, we also have this tablet, where the daughter is video-calling her grandparents, who much prefer to stay at home on the couch than brave the crowds to watch the parade.

With 18 minifigures, all of which feel like they belong in this set, and with plenty of new torsos, faces and even accessories this is a smash hit, and such a joyful, and generous part of the set. I daresay, the minifigure lineup is the set’s strongest feature.

The completed model

Most LEGO sets are pretty samey, and while you can sometimes expect novel techniques, it’s easy to fall into established patterns. The build for 80111 Lunar New Year Parade was a breath of fresh air, as you build these three very unique floats.

The build experience is entirely novel, and so clever, as each float has simple yet ingenious mechanical features that animate the floats as you push them along.

I’ve never built anything like this before in a retail set, and it kept me engaged throughout, especially as each float has its own distinct movement and mechanisms. Here are some work in progress shots of the floats – I greatly appreciate the colour coding which makes the build very legible, despite some technical steps and areas.

First up, we have the Rabbit Float, to celebrate the 2023, the Zodiac Year of the Rabbit. There’s a fairly large animatronic animatronic white rabbit which its atop a fairly elaborately decorated float.

The colours are superb here, with plenty of red, and gold, which are lucky Chinese New Year colours, that contrasts nicely against the white rabbit, and tan cloud that follows behind him. I also love the pops of teal throughout.

Here’s a look at the rabbit, which is clutching a red packet, which is a printed 2×4 tile. Great techniques used for the bunny, and I love his little round paws.

The bunny also stands on a bunch of traditional Chinese coins. Or is he pooping them out? I don’t know but their positioning is a little suspect!

Behind is an elevated pedestal for the Zodiac Rabbit minifigure to stand on, waving his lantern.

At the back of each float is a little connector, which is cleverly stowed away in the back, which is used to link up the floats with each other.

The magic happens when you push the float along, as the Rabbit bops up and down as the float moves!

Up next, we have a Music-themed float, which again, has a incredibly striking visual design, thanks to the plastic sheets, which look like visual representations of song emanating from the lead musician, who is also on a cloud.

There are small drums on one end, and a large drum on the back.

I love the musician playing the pipa in her little pale yellow cloud.

And these foil decorations are just gorgeous, especially how visually striking their are, emanating from the cloud. What a wonderful way to depict sound using visuals.

There is a hard-working drummer at the back beating the large drum. The stickers were a bit challenging to apply, as they’re curved but I’m just glad I didn’t botch it up.

These stickered teal decorations, and the gong at front is also nice.

And there’s also a smaller drum on one of the sides.

And here’s how the Music Float looks from the side. Again, I really love the patterns and decorations on the side, and how organic the lines look, as well as pops of flowers.

Push the music float along, and the drummer beats the large drum at the back. Genius!

And last but certainly not least is the LEGO Float. Now there’s nothing inherently Chinese New Year about LEGO, but this is a LEGO set, and LEGO has just come off its 90th Anniversary celebrations, so we can excuse the indulgence here.

The LEGO Float is a whimsical float, with plenty of large oversized LEGO bricks decorating the float.

It’s honestly so great to see these oversized bricks make a return (even if the LEGO logo studs are stickers), after such a long hiatus from their last appearance in 76039 Ant-Man Final Battle.

They add so much personality to the float, and there’s just something pleasing about these oversized LEO bricks that make me happy.

And as another bonus, Ollie the Dragon, the Legoland mascot makes an appearance and is the centerpiece of the LEGO Float. Designer Justin Ramsden clearly loves inserting Ollie wherever possible, with the last one being 80036 The City of Lanterns where Ollie also makes an appearance.

There is another stickered tile with Chinese words on it, which loosely translate to “happiness creates new spring” which is a lovely message for the New Year.

And in another great design flourish, you’ll notice that Ollie’s body actually extends from within the float, with his tail popping out the side!

When you push the LEGO Float, Ollie swivels and rotates, which is super cool!

And here’s the completed Lunar New Year Parade with all floats linked up together!

The train is quite long, but boy, does this look great when they’re all connected together. If you have the floor space, I highly recommend just pulling the Parade along, so that all the floats get activated and begin moving in tandem with one another, which is a fantastic sight.

What I liked:

• Huge number of incredibly well-designed minifigures brings the set to life
• Incredibly fun and unique build experience
• Mechanical functions work really well
• Purple Classic Space helmet and airtanks
• So much value in this set

What I didn’t like: 

• Quite a lot of stickers, some of which are hard to apply
• I found it awkward to connect the floats

FINAL THOUGHTS:

80111 Lunar New Year Parade is a truly magnificent set, and one worth getting excited about. From the get go, the build was full of surprises and delights, with the ingenious yet simple functions that you build to bring the floats to life.

This is interspersed with fun decorating segments as you layer tiles, golden elements, oversized LEGO bricks and other elements to bring each float’s unique identity to life.

The set really shines in the minifigure department, with 18 minifigures that boast high-quality prints and designs that ensure that all the characters included are memorable, and play an integral part in the set.

There’s so much storytelling, and playability that’s made possible by the sheer number of minifigures included, and I love the connections to previous sets.

The floats are magical, charming and so much fun to play with, with their mechanical functions that infuse them with life and movement as soon as you nudge them along.

While a New Year Parade isn’t quite a quintessential Chinese New Year tradition, it’s fun and festive enough to fit in nicely alongside all the other LEGO Lunar New Year sets from previous years.

This set truly has everything, even historical nods to LEGO’s history and all-time favourite themes, and the inclusion of the Purple Classic Space helmet, and airtanks just tie everything together.

If there are any flaws, it’d have to be the stickers, of which there are many, and punctuate the builds in a less than ideal fashion. It’s also quite busy, and might be hard to integrate into your existing LEGO Chinese New Year displays, but should fit in well if you have a LEGO City.

It also lacks display presence, unlike some of the other more notable sets like the Temple Fair, or Spring Lantern Festival which loom large, but then again, 80111 is designed to be played with, not just admired on a shelf.

The price is also quite decent, especially with 18 minifigures thrown in, and with so much replayability, you really feel like you get your money’s worth with this set.

At its core, while parades aren’t core to Chinese New Year celebrations, parades do share similarities with this set, as they share and bring these parts of Chinese culture to a wider audience.

The design is also magnificent, capturing so much of the essence of what the Lunar New Year is – the sounds, energy, people, snacks, colour, tradition and most of all family, and is a joyous LEGO interpretation of what it truly means to ring in the Lunar New Year and Spring.

This is a really easy set to recommend, and this should be one you put on your list when it gets released in January 2023.

Rating and score: 4/5 ★★★★✰

Build [4] – A really fun build filled with curiosity in seeing how the play features worked
Real Value [4] – Huge number of minifigures, and for 1,600+ pieces
Innovation [4] – The float mechanisms work really well, yet isn’t overly technical and imposing
Coolness [5] – A really cool set that’s unlike anything I’ve ever built
Keepability [4] – I can see myself keeping this displayed with the rest of my LEGO Lunar New Year sets for a long, long time.

Thank you so much for reading this review, and I hope I got you excited for this set!

80111 Lunar New Year Parade will be available from LEGO.com on 25 December (UK/EU/China), 1 January (Asia Pacific), or 10 January (North America).

What do you think of the Lunar New Year Parade? How do you think it stacks up against previous Lunar new Year sets?

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